Funny, Glenn fell out of my bookmarks a few years ago even though we're probably pretty temperamentally simpatico, because I felt I was getting too many links and not enough content. One-liners aren't enough.

I still read Dr. Helen, though. And I'm glad he pointed me to a blog that I find more suited to my reading style: this one.

One of the good things about Instapundit is that it is easy to tune out the bits you don't like. That's the big advantage of the one word comments and a good eye for the lede. Lots of quick hits, good flow during the day. A good yield of links.

Insty is a quick read. He's to blogs what the NY Post is to newspapers. He does find a lot of interesting items. Given all the things he links to, I wonder if he is some kind of demon speed reader.....I wonder if the windfall that Huffpo just made, hasn't caused a lot of sugarplum fairies to start dancing in heads of all the well known bloggers.

There doesn't seem to be a left-side equivalent to the Instalanche. If we knew why, we'd probably know more about how conservatives differ from liberals. There is at least as much left-blog traffic as right-blog traffic-- probably more-- but stories gather momentum in different ways and at different speeds on the two sides.

On the right side, stories (like a major news outlet acting hypocritical in its portrayal of left v. right issues) tend to live or die according to market dynamics. If the story excites people, it will generate immediate links, no matter what the source. Right-side originators of stories tend to accept reality when the blogosphere deems their stories boring or unimportant.

On the left side, there's more marketing. A story (something like a 7th-grade social studies class in a public elementary school in Kansas having a paper assigned on the development of Christianity) might be marginal, but some left-side actors will push such stories, trying to get various outlets to cover it. Stories seem to bubble up more slowly, sometimes more endowed with analysis and commentary than equal-opposite stories on the right side.

Some interesting comments. What I consider one of Insty's best features--his generosity of linking--turns some people off because they want more of him and less of everybody else.

MadMan, what you may be missing is that his machine gun posting style means there's lots for everyone--even if you dislike most of his posts, there's plenty of good stuff left. Sure, most bloggers can be filed under "life's too short", but he's too influential and popular to be dismissed so easily. He's not just any blogger.

I'd like to know the source of the quote "fierce moral urgency of change." He throws it around like it's a liberal anthem, and it may well be, or have been, but still, I'd like a source.

I've e-mailed him a few times and he's used some of my funnies. The strange thing was that on two occasions, he nearly simultaneously put up something that my husband's best man had written to him - and we hadn't seen or talked to the guy for 15 years.

Instaputz is perfect for conservatives because he never explains why he likes what he does, why he thinks what he does and often, why he even links something. That's the perfect style for conservatives: Just tell us what to think, what position to hold, what to say and leave the reasoning and explanations out of it.

Everything in Fen's world amounts to either destroying something or falling in line behind the support of something else. Figuring out why he's for what he's for, why he's against what he's against, or what should be changed is not a permitted part of the equation. Don't expect there to be any reasoning behind it, MM, and don't take it personally. That's just Fen.

At least a mute would attempt hand signals or something (or so one would think). A deaf person can use sign language. But Glenn Reynolds' inability to ever say much of anything makes giving him attention an exercise in pointless futility.

You probably could, however, ask him what kind of tree he would be. In fact, I think that question was made for him.

Interviewing Instapundit (how aptly named) would be like passing over an interview with Guttenberg and just deciding to interview the printing press instead. You know, the machine. Ask it questions about how it operates.

Tim Maguire, but isn't insty just a bunch of links? Like Drudge (another site I don't visit, but that goes way back to alt.showbiz.gossip flamewards on usenet)?

I am highly resistant to people telling me what to view, either in person, in a paper, or on the internet. (Which is why I'm not seeing the movie up at West tonight which has been flogged forever by my kid's Film Study teacher. Enough already!)

Tim Maguire wrote "Some interesting comments. What I consider one of Insty's best features--his generosity of linking--turns some people off because they want more of him and less of everybody else."

I appreciate the links. I click on a small fraction of them, but he's kind of like the weather report. You go to him to get a reading on the day's big stories. He's also like the typical weather reporter in that he's got more brains than the talking heads that take up all the airtime.

I also appreciate the lack of comments. Comments here are great, but Althouse is the exception. And even great comments are 50% dross.

I visit Instapundit throughout the day, but I find it equally informative and alienating. I love when he tells us about Amazon deals, but hate when he opines on all the shit he buys, reminding me he's a rich law professor.

And, yea, an Instalaunche is great, but I don't get the impression he or his readers are particularly concerned with disturbing the narrative they have, any more than the MSM is. As I said a few days ago (on the Glenn Beck thread) there's so much news being ignored, it can get depressing to think of how out-of-touch Glenn can be to the reality of those not in his economic class, social circle - whatever it is - which further insures there's no place for anything like a real difference to emerge.

For instance, it's obvious he doesn't care about (or understands) NewAge, such as today's post on HuffPo, where he'll point out they don't pay writers, and many commentors aren't happy about the AOL deal - both worthwhile topics - but no mention Arianna makes her staff go through John-Rogers' cult training, that she's had writers involved in grisly murders, many who appear to be unhinged, and scientists are up in arms against her because she dedicates a section of her site to outright quackery (all much more important real-world issues, if you ask me). Is it necessary to mention AOL has purchased - and thus encourages - those on the funny farm? Only Glenn knows for sure.

He gave me credit for catching on to Jared Lee Loughner's NewAge beliefs (and propensity to kill) before others, but what NewAge actually means for American society and culture? What's going on beyond the obvious? How cults are looked at, and affecting us - and how such thinking leads to our societal failures - I think Reynolds could care less, preferring to focus on "nerd" shit like McBain shorts in episodes of The Simpson's.

Sometimes, I just find his choices weird. And, aside from the Tea Party stuff, short-sighted and not very important, leading to "more of the same" no matter what he focuses on. Like an Army of Davids, but they left their slingshots at home.

I am highly resistant to people telling me what to view, either in person, in a paper, or on the internet.

It's not like anyone is making you go, MM. I view it more as someone pointing out something they found interesting.

I do think it's gotten a little more, eh, corporate/ish in the last few years. The Pajamas media thing. But that stuff is easy to ignore and the nice thing is that there is a wide variety of links, science, tax policy and other political stuff, reason...

Coolidge was the Lady Gaga of his day, but standards have moved down the slippery slope. I think Gaga found the pool at the bottom and it needs cleaning - seems to be a lot of junk floating around down there.

I almost died during half time, accidently pulling a gigantic shelf of industrial tools and other large items (like typewriters) down upon myself, most of them hitting me in the face, cartoon-style. I'm O.K., but got knocked unconscious, which scared the shit out of everyone. Now I've got a scar over my right eyebrow, and lots of abrasions on my forehead, but otherwise, I'm fine.

Jealousy? Yeah right! For years I've just been trying to figure out how to be the next LinkBot, never knowing when I'll get my break!

I'd be happy to take a look at Glenn Reynolds' more-than-one-word works. It's just weird trying to find a way to do so when what he's most known (and appreciated) for is a website full of links accompanied by nothing more than a description as brief as a Facebook reaction, delivered with the predictable regularity of the next television commercial.

As for your Reynolds criticism, I just think he's focused on the things he is most passionate about, just as you are. That's what makes blogs interesting to me, they aren't just what a paper thinks is important, they are what an individual thinks is important. They don't have to cover everything.

I started reading Glenn way back when he wrote as Instapundit for Slate. Every week he'd analyze the Sunday morning "pundits" on the news shows. I was impressed by the way he'd cut right thru the bs. and focus on the way the two sides were trying to frame the debate. What questions were and (sometimes more importantly) weren't being asked. And which answers weren't really answers at all.

I still have him as my opening page in my browser. But I do miss his analyses. Now it is mainly just links. I wish he'd write more of his own. But then again, he is paid when he writes a column, but the blog is for free. So I guess I can't complain.

Yea, bagoh, they probably did. It was wild. Like having a freight train run over my face and, being unconscious and immobilized, I couldn't block any of it. I'm sure I took, at least, thirty straight shots to the face - because of the way the shelf twisted, not one of them hit my body - it was just one shot, and then a series of them in twos, threes, fives, all dead-weight heavy and straight-on, right in the face. But, remarkably, there's no swelling or anything, just a blood-clotted cut and bruises.

Crack... I bet that was an OSHA violation, if it happened on the job. I am praying for your thick skull and the wonderful brain inside of it. My parents used to tell me," Don't hurt yourself or we will kill you". They were a hard two some, but at least they cared.

I read Instapundit every day for about five years -- but I started drifting away over the past year or so. I still read him a few times per week, but there is quite a contrast if you read his stuff five years ago vs what you see today...or maybe it is just me? We all evolve but I'll always appreciate the Blogfather.